Emperor Henry VI
| Henry VI | |
|---|---|
Portrait from the Codex Manesse, circa 1304, folio 6r
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| Holy Roman Emperor | |
| Reign | 15 April 1191 – 28 September 1197 |
| Coronation | 15 April 1191, Rome |
| Predecessor | Frederick I Barbarossa |
| Successor | Otto IV |
| King of Germany (King of the Romans) | |
| Reign | 15 August 1169 – 28 September 1197 |
| Coronation | 15 August 1169, Aachen |
| Predecessor | Frederick I Barbarossa |
| Successor | Philip and Otto IV |
| King of Italy | |
| Reign | 21 January 1186 – 28 September 1197 |
| Coronation | 21 January 1186, Milan |
| Predecessor | Frederick I Barbarossa |
| Successor | Otto IV |
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King of Sicily with Constance |
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| Reign | 25 December 1194 – 28 September 1197 |
| Coronation | 25 December 1194, Palermo |
| Predecessor | William III |
| Successor | Frederick |
| Born | November 1165 Nimwegen |
| Died | 28 September 1197 (aged 31) Messina |
| Burial | Palermo |
| Spouse | Constance of Sicily |
| Issue | Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor |
| House | Hohenstaufen |
| Father | Frederick I |
| Mother | Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Henry VI (Heinrich VI) (November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1190 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
He was the second son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his consort Beatrix of Burgundy. In 1186 he was married to Constance of Sicily, the posthumous daughter of the Norman king Roger II of Sicily. Henry, still stuck in the Hohenstaufen conflict with the House of Welf, had to enforce the inheritance claims by his wife against her nephew Count Tancred of Lecce. Based on an enormous ransom for the release of King Richard I of England, he conquered Sicily in 1194; however, the intended unification with the Holy Roman Empire ultimately failed.
Henry was born in autumn 1165 at the Valkhof pfalz of Nijmegen to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrix of Burgundy. At the age of four, his father had him elected King of the Romans during the Hoftag in Bamberg at Pentecost 1169, and Henry was crowned on 15 August at Aachen Cathedral.
He accompanied his father on his Italian campaign of 1174-76 against the Lombard League, whereby he was educated by Godfrey of Viterbo and associated with minnesingers like Friedrich von Hausen, Bligger von Steinach, and Bernger von Horheim. Henry was fluent in Latin and, according to the chronicler Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, was "distinguished by gifts of knowledge, wreathed in flowers of eloquence, and learned in canon and Roman law". He was a patron of poets and poetry, and he almost certainly composed the song Kaiser Heinrich, now among the Weingarten Song Manuscripts. According to his rank and with Imperial Eagle (Reichsadler), regalia, and a scroll, he is the first and foremost to be portrayed in the famous Codex Manesse, a 14th-century songbook manuscript featuring 140 reputed poets; at least three poems are attributed to a young and romantically minded Henry VI. In one of those he describes a romance that makes him forget all his earthly power, and neither riches nor royal dignity can outweigh his yearning for that lady (ê ich mich ir verzige, ich verzige mich ê der krône – before I give her up, I’d rather give up the crown).
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